Even as the first-ever Desertfest New York gets ready to roll out next week and Desertfest London and Berlin prepare to follow soon thereafter, the autumnal incarnation, Desertfest Belgium 2019, has begun to unveil its lineup for this October. They had their work cut out for them in topping the 2018 lineup, but let’s face it, if you’re going to do that, announcing Sleep as a headliner right out of the gate is probably the way to go. It’s like, “Oh, well, that settles that, then. This’ll rule.” Not that the reunited Truckfighters, Monomyth, Temple Fang or even 30,000 Monkies are anything to sneeze at, but let’s face it, you don’t announce Sleep first unless you’re trying to make an impression. Mission accomplished. Impression made.

This of course will be the first of many Desertfest Belgium 2019 announcements, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if by the time October gets here, Desertfest London and Berlin are back revealing their respective lineups for 2020. The cycle is ongoing. Cyclical, you might say.

Here’s word from Antwerp:

The moment you have all been waiting for! The first thing we can tell you about DFBE ’19 is that YES, your prayers have been answered. The Mighty Sleep will be headlining our Fest this year!

Of course, that’s just the first of many names. We are equally delighted to welcome back Truckfighters and the cosmic Monomyth to our stage. For more Northern heavy pysch grooves, look no further than Temple Fang. And finally, we want to introduce you to the first Belgian homebrew act for this year’s Fest: 30,000 Monkies.

And with that, the ticket sale is ON! Reduced Combi Tickets are available for a limited time only for €100, all costs included. We have also brought back the Hotel Accommodation deal, find the details on our website. Be swift to avoid disappointment, go get them tickets!

04.14.19 – 02.15 CET – Saturday night – Hotel

It snowed today. That was a first. Hail too. I wasn’t outside for it, but unless European snow bounces, it was hail, followed by snow. 11 Roadburns later, Tilburg still holds a few surprises. And no, I don’t just mean the secret Thou set where they did the Misfits covers and Emma Ruth Rundle got in on the action, though that too.

The weather wasn’t a hardship or anything — the joke was that Sumac were so heavy they made it hail, and fair enough — since apart from a short walk here or there I spent very nearly the entire day inside. I was bumming hard after finding out about a brutal fuckup on my part with today’s issue of the daily ‘zine, the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch. Basically I left out an important piece and we’ll run it tomorrow anyway, but I still felt very, very much like shit about it. Like, “I don’t deserve to be here” beating myself up. I went and found the writer in question and damn near broke out into tears apologizing.

I know it’s a festival fanzine and all, but that shit is important to me, and it was squarely my mistake that dropped the article. It won’t be as timely tomorrow when it goes in the issue. I know it’s not the end of the world, ultimately, but this fest puts its faith in me not to screw up doing this one thing, and I screwed it up. I’d already seen Temple Fang and Wolvennest and a couple seconds of Confusion Master by then, and I thought long and hard about just coming back to the hotel and going to bed, but eventually got it together. It sucks being bad at, like, everything you do.

Like I said, I saw Temple Fang again. They opened up the pre-show on Wednesday (review here), and they opened up today in a kind of super-early showcase slot at 1:30PM in an especially foggy Hall of Fame, up by the Koepelhal and the Ladybird Skatepark, which is very quickly becoming another Roadburn venue. Launching with “Gemini,” Temple Fang were this time around a little less tense — maybe just waking up — and a little more locked into an overarching groove that still highlighted their progressive take on space rock and psychedelia, but seemed to give the songs a little more space to breathe. I’m not sure I can speak to exactly what the difference was. It might’ve been just as simple as playing a little more relaxed. But both sets showed the serious potential on the part of the band and my only problem with seeing them play a second time was that it meant they did not immediately on Thursday morning enter the studio to record their debut album, which had been my hope after their first show. Oh well. Always tomorrow, guys.

Wolvennest opened the Main Stage, with theremin, incense and a few skulls here and there amid their darkened cult rock atmospherics. The Brussels-based outfit are celebrating the release this month of their new EP, Vortex, which came out last week through the ever-tasteful Ván Records, and I have no doubt they persuaded a few heads with their murky vibe and swirling, obscure but still progressive heaviness. Fronted by Sharon Shazzula, who’s done work over the years with Aqua Nebula Oscillator, Kadavar, Farflung and a host of others — in addition to having founded Swamp Booking — and she and the full band alongside her brought a consuming wash of noise to the big room at the 013, and once I got back from my Beto-esque apology tour (except I meant it), I found I was even more into it near the finish. It was somewhere between black metal, psychedelia and lurch, and wherever that was, that seemed definitely like the place to be. I’m sure someone cleverer than me has already invented a genre tag for it. To me it just sounded awesome.

Today was Maalstroom — a massive celebration of Dutch black metal held at Het Patronaat and given the added poignancy of also serving as an ad hoc tribute to former Dodecahedron frontman Michiel Eikenaar, who passed away yesterday after a long illness. Malstroom itself is the third of Roadburn 2019’s commissioned projects, and like last year’s Vánagandr formed of Icelandic black metallers, Maalstroom drew/draws from various projects working together on a new piece as a new entity. The whole day at the church was dedicated to it, and though my own adventure would take me on a different path, it would be hard not to admire the vision in putting that kind of thing together with Witte Wieven, Turia, Laster, Terzij de Horde, the aforementioned Dodecahedron and then Maalstroom itself to close out. One way or the other, it was going to be a special day.

There were also more acts today from Tomas Lindberg‘s curation, including Uran, The Exorcist GBG, and Orchestra of Constant Distress, and it was the Exile on Mainstream Records 20th anniversary celebration. Oh, and Sleep played Sleep’s Holy Mountain (2009 reissue review here) in its entirety. You know, because why not. I wound up flitting back and forth between 013 and the Koepelhal complex for the day, as I think a lot of people did who didn’t otherwise camp out at the Patronaat. Sumac absolutely floored me playing the Main Stage. What’s been my hesitation with those guys? I have no idea. I’ve dug both their records — last year’s Love in Shadow (review here) and 2016’s What One Becomes (review here) — but I still never really considered myself a fan. It’s Aaron Turner (ex-Isis, etc.), Bryan Cook (Russian Circles) and Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists), and their tone was probably the heaviest I’d heard this weekend up to that point. I don’t know what my hangup was with that band, but yeah, I’ll go ahead and credit the universe with being right on that one. More records to buy: just what I need.

Mythic Sunship had added another set at the Skatepark — they wound up playing three times, so I’m extra glad I caught them at least once — so I made my way up there and stopped in Koepelhal first to see Boston’s Morne, who were casting death across that packed and massive space. Couldn’t help but notice guitarist/vocalist Milosz Gassan wearing a t-shirt for Armageddon Shop (or Armageddon Boston, to be more specific) on the stage. Today was apparently Record Store Day, so fair enough. Roadburn never seems to lack for commerce, as the merch area just outside the Koepelhal proper shows, but I’m sure plenty of people also made it over to Sounds, which is the local shop down the road a little ways. I went once. It was cool. This year, however, my feet were glued in place for Morne, who issued their To the Night Unknown LP through that same Armageddon Shop label last year. No regrets. Their sound has the classic emotional crux of death-doom but toys with that balance effectively and still holds a pervasive sense of atmosphere.

It was almost time for that Mythic Sunship show, and I was looking forward to it, but Treedeon in the Hall of Fame for the Exile on Mainstream 20th anniversary was too good to pass up. The German trio’s bizarre noise rock is so emblematic of that label, and while I don’t think my tastes and those of Andreas Kohl, who runs imprint, always line up — though we’re both big Wino fans — it’s a fair bet that something on Exile on Mainstream is going to at very least be interesting. In the case of Treedeon, it was interesting like a fucking boot to the throat. Even their recorded work — the latest LP was 2018’s Under the Manchineel (review here) — doesn’t quite capture the density of their approach to noise rock, and golly it was loud in the Hall of Fame. It’s a low ceiling, so the sound just feels like it’s collapsing on you, and that suited Treedeon well in portraying another vision of extremity after Morne.

Among other things, it was about the polar opposite of seeing Mythic Sunship in a skate park, so that was fun. Indeed, dudes were skating on the ramps and rails and whatnot and looking annoyed as people started filing in for the show. Sorry. The Copenhagen four-piece have been on tour since April 4 supporting their excellent 2018 offering, Another Shape of Psychedelic Music (review here), and though they didn’t have the sax with them today as they apparently did yesterday, they still tore it up ferociously, by which I mean they played a smoothly progressive jam-based kraut-psych-rock and their chemistry was out in full force. Their drummer ate a banana right before they went on, which I’m sure helped keep his energy up, and the Ladybird filled up well for them. They’re the kind of band I’d probably never get to see if I wasn’t here, let alone see in such a context, so I was stoked on the opportunity and the outcome of it. I don’t think they will, but if they played another set tomorrow, I doubt anyone would complain, except maybe those skateboarders.

Dinner was chicken in peanut sauce. I had a few quick bites and then went back to the Main Stage to watch the end of Cave In‘s set. I gotta say, I haven’t listened to Cave In actively in a long time, and I still knew just about every word to everything they were playing. That band can write a song. They had Nate Newton (Converge) on bass in the place of Caleb Scofield, who passed away and was memorialized with an acoustic set last year by his bandmates Steve Brodsky and Adam McGrath that’s since been released by Roadburn Records, and while I didn’t see the full set, what I caught was dead on. They’ve always occupied a space between punk, metal and rock, but they’ve also always made that space their own, and to see them do that in front of a crowd so into it as that at Roadburn was affirming even if I only caught a couple songs.

It was time for Sleep. There was the requisite changeover after Cave In, and fair enough for the mighty stacks of amps and cabinets brought out, as well as Jason Roeder‘s drum riser. I mean, Sleep playing Sleep’s Holy Mountain. In full. Front-to-back. As the first of two nights of sets. What the hell more could you want? If your answer was, “maybe a shortened version of ‘Dopesmoker’ and ‘The Clarity,'” they did those too, but obviously the highlight was seeing Al Cisneros, Matt Pike and Roeder run through those Holy Mountain tracks. Pike even switched to an acoustic guitar for an extended take on “Some Grass” ahead of “Aquarian.” The Main Stage hall was packed to the point that the upstairs balcony looked like it was about to spill over, and the whole room just became a sea of nodding heads to each riff. Everyone kept up with the changes. Everyone knew where they were going. It was yet another of those Roadburn things that make you feel so stupid lucky to be here to see. Funny how those keep popping up all weekend. Every year. All weekend. They’re back tomorrow doing The Sciences in full. Again, Roadburn.

There was still plenty of Roadburn day three to go, but I was (un)fairly beat. Still, there was one more thing I had to, had to, had to see, and it was Bellrope. They were closing out the Exile on Mainstream celebration at Hall of Fame, and though the hike up there felt daunting to my riffed-out legs, I did it anyway and got up there before the two-bass-one-guitar-all-smash German foursome got started. Their debut album, You Must Relax (review here), is on my list of 2019’s best despite (because of?) its initial feedback assault to weed out the weak-hearted among its listenership. They did similar on stage, by the way, but shorter, and with a mammoth and punishing low end push to fill out that feedback, it was brutal in the best way possible. They brought up two members of Treedeon for a guest vocal spot and the sort of sludge ensued that you should need a prescription to get, which should explain the line that went out the door.

Despite the day’s rough start with my stupid, stupid, stupid, unprofessional bullshit error in the ‘zine, it was still a day that was as fantastic as it was busy. Tomorrow is the end of Roadburn 2019, and it’s always bittersweet, so while I’m plenty exhausted, like At the Gates before me, I’m going to try to drink from the night itself and let adrenaline carry me through as, hopefully, it will.

04.11.19 – 00.23 CET – Wednesday night – Hotel

Just like that, Planet Roadburn aligned to the hew-mon visible spectrum with the newly-relocated and rebranded pre-show, Ignition. Once upon a Roadburn or three ago, the Sunday was called the Afterburner. Now it’s just another day of the fest. Next year, maybe Ignition will be two stages. Then four. Then six. Then Roadburn will just be a week long. Then a month. Until, at last, three centuries from now, it will always be Roadburn and Roadburn will never not happen, and if our shitheel species is lucky enough to witness it, it’s as close to utopia as we’d ever be likely to get.

Three bands held sway at the 013 — there’s construction at Cul de Sac; a revamp, but it will reportedly return — and it was Temple Fang, Great Grief and Hellripper to cast a spectrum of light, dark and blood across the Green Room for the faithful in attendance to bear witness. Was that you? It probably should’ve been.

Boogie oogie oogie:

Temple Fang

I was as impatient to see Temple Fang live as I am now for them to put out an album. The Amsterdam four-piece of bassist/vocalist Dennis Duijnhouwer and guitarist/sometimes-vocalist Jevin de Groot, guitarist Ivy van der Veer and drummer Jasper van den Broeke collided kraut and space rock visions with an even-heavier underpinning thanks to Duijnhouwer‘s formidable Rickenbacker tone. He and de Groot shared a tenure in hyper-underappreciated cosmic doomers Mühr, and Duijnhouwer featured in Death Alley as well, so there’s pedigree there as far as I’m concerned, but if Temple Fang had eyes for anything, it was only the silveriest of futures. I don’t know the name of a single song they played, but woof, they held it down in glorious fashion for the assembled masses. By the time they were done, I wanted to shout at the stage for them to immediately get in the studio and get something together. I’ll hope that while they do that, they also mix and master this live set so I can relive the magic in smug ground-floor fashion. They were the first band who played, and there’s no doubt in my mind that by the end of this weekend, I’ll still consider them a highlight. And sadly, they won’t have an album out by Monday either, so I’ll probably still be complaining about that too.

Great Grief

Good grief, Great Grief. Roadburn‘s years-since-established fetish for the Icelandic underground in its many forms — yet seemingly not all that many people in the actual bands — continued with the heart-on-sleeve hardcore four-piece, who brought issues of diversity and coping with mental health struggles to the fore in their set, even as frontman Finnbogi Örn batted some dude’s beer out of his hand, and subsequently broke a beer bottle on stage (which was swept up afterward) and cut up his forehead with the shards. I’ve never been huge on hardcore, but I’m not about to take away from the fact that Örn, guitarist Gunnar Ágúst, bassist Fannar Már and drummer Leifur Örn were unreal in how tight they were despite also putting on a show energetic enough to be called visceral. They even had a little mosh going in the Green Room, which thankfully involved no kicking that I saw or felt. It wasn’t even until after their set that some dude dumped his beer on me trying to get a drumstick from Leifur, who was packing away his gear at the time. Up to that point, they very simply put everything they had into their material and the delivery thereof, and while I wouldn’t call myself a convert to the style, I readily acknowledge the convincing argument Great Grief made.

Hellripper

For as long as Roadburn has had a pre-show, there’s been thrash. Hellripper, from Scotland, might’ve been the youngest dudes in the room, but the kind of no-nonsense, balls-out thrash. fucking. metal. they played is best meted out as a beating from a young person. They stripped the genre to its two-guitar essentials and charred it with an edge of rudimentary black metal and were nothing less than a total blast. Through such family-friendly hits as “Vomit on the Cross” and “All Hail the Goat,” which opens their newly-issued EP, Black Arts and Alchemy, the Aberdeen extremists lost none of their ferocity for also being a really good time, and they were a reminder that although Roadburn-proper over the next four days will unfold in a manner bound to no creative limits and celebrate artistry in multiple media sonic and otherwise, sometimes it really does just need to be about losing your mind and headbanging to a killer speed metal attack. Hellripper were only right to make the point, and their message was well received. By the time they were halfway through the set, Ignition was achieved, and it was Roadburn all the way. Let the vibe begin.

—

Usually, I’d get to the hotel, put my stuff down and sleep for a bit before the pre-show. Not this year. I’m jetlagged like a bastard and the alarm is set for a sadly few hours from now to get up tomorrow and put the finishing touches on the first issue of the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch, so with photos after the jump, I’m going to punch out and get every second of sleep I possibly can. Tomorrow is Roadburn. Let me take a second and breathe that in.

So, Roadburn 2019 has moved the pre-party from Cul de Sac — which was always packed — to the 013 proper, where it will be held in the Green Room for the first time. I’d expect that to fill up as well, as Temple Fang, Hellripper and one more band still to be announced take the stage to kick off the festival. It’s just one more example of how Roadburn keeps getting bigger. Sunday used to be the Afterburner, with fewer stages. Now it’s a full-blown fest day. The pre-party used to be two bands, then three, now a new venue. Pretty soon Roadburn is just going to be a full week long and will take over the entire town of Tilburg each April. You won’t hear me complain when it happens.

I’m thrilled to say I’ll be back in the Netherlands for Roadburn 2019 this April, once again serving as the editor of the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch daily ‘zine. I am honored and humbled to one again have the opportunity to be there and to do that work — I need to get an email out to the writing staff like yesterday, which is typical — as it’s a project I believe in deeply and an opportunity to work with a group of writers, photographers, graphic artists and others I deeply respect. Thank you to Walter and the 013 for having us back for another go. It’ll be fun.

With day schedules and the occasional TBA act still to come, I doubt this will be the last Roadburn 2019 announcement before April gets here, but the lineup is officially complete, so here’s how it rounds out. See you in Tilburg:

Final bands announced for Roadburn 2019

-Tomas Lindberg adds CRAFT to his curated event-Roadburn’s pre-show party gets a new home…and more!

Roadburn’s artistic director, Walter Hoeijmakers comments:“Whilst this is our final band announcement for the 2019 festival, we’re still working on various other things behind the scenes which we’ll bring to you in due course, including the side programme and of course the day schedules. Once again, we’re delighted to have sold out the festival before Christmas and our gratitude to all those Roadburn supporters is unwavering. We’re extremely happy to be adding some true cult bands to the festival with this announcement.”

TOMAS LINDBERG’S THE BURNING DARKNESS

CRAFTRounding out the announcements for Tomas Lindberg’s The Burning Darkness curated event is the cult Swedish band, CRAFT. As ever, we hand over to our esteemed curator to tell us why this was such an essential pick for him…

“Craft was one of the first bands that I contacted for my announcement. I have been a big fan for a long time, and with the release of the astounding ‘White Noise and Black Metal’, it was a no brainer to include them.”Read more here.

BOSSE-DE-NAGEWith each member initially only known by an initial, as though mere spectres channeling this labyrinthine music from some other galaxy, BOSSE-DE-NAGE have navigated the last decade expertly, creating five incredible records, of which last year’s Further Still is the culmination so far. Melding black metal, shoegaze, post rock and screamo, we’re prepared for a mind-melting experience when BOSSE-DE-NAGE take to the stage at Roadburn.

STREET SECTSCheck out any STREET SECTS album artwork, and you’ll feel like you’ve plunged into the gritty, harsh world of a hardboiled crime novel, a genre famous for its unflinching realism and toughness. Adjectives that can well be applied to the music this duo from Austin, Texas creates, as well. Music is often described as escapism, but when Leo Ashline hollers, shrieks and proclaims hard truths over Shaun Ringsmuth’s pounding, pulsing rhythms, it’s the absolute opposite – it’s as if someone’s forcing your eyes wide open, Clockwork Orange-style, to stare at the ugliest and harshest realities this world has to offer.

GLERAKURFounded by Icelandic composer and sound designer Elvar Geir Sævarsson in order to perform his contemplative yet titanic score for Fjalla-Eyvindur & Halla – a production by The National Theater – GLERAKUR (Icelandic for ‘Glass Field’) is currently one of the most important cornerstones of the country’s thriving music scene.

GLERAKUR’s debut album, The Mountains Are Beautiful Now – the soundtrack to the aforementioned play – is very impressive, and won Iceland’s prestigious Kraumur Award in 2017. Though the band’s cinematic take on Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Swans really comes to life over a full set, as we experienced at last year’s Eistnaflug. With two drummers, and four guitarists, GLERAKUR multiplied their hypnotic waves of dreamlike-atmospheres and harmonic feedback into such an overwhelming and mesmerising performance that we simply had to invite them for the 2019 festival.

MJ GUIDERMelissa Guion will be at Roadburn performing as part of the Thou Artist In Residence extravaganza, which we are already breathlessly anticipating. However, we’re thrilled to announce that she will also be performing her own set – aided and abetted by live collaborators – under the moniker, MJ GUIDER.

If you’re unfamiliar with the hypnotic fayre of her 2016 release, Precious Systems, then the good news is that there’s just about 11 weeks before Roadburn to get yourself up to speed. Immerse yourself in the swirling landscapes and enchanting melodies on offer; lay back in the stream of lush instrumentation and let it wash over you. MJ GUIDERs output is a multilayered offering, and yet remains delicately sparse at times.

L’ACÉPHALENever the most prolific of bands, nor the most well-known, nevertheless L’ACÉPHALE have offered some of the most intelligent blackened folk music throughout the years. While this decade has only witnessed a few small releases – after Malefeasance and Stahlhartes Gehäuse, their only full-lengths, punctuated an unusually productive period in 2008 and 2009 – they have all been remarkable, and once we were made aware that the band was getting ready to become more active, we saw the perfect opportunity to satiate our hunger for more L’ACÉPHALE. With the announcement of their self titled, 74-minute album coming this April on Eisenwald, what better time to explore the abyss than now?

GREY AURAAs well as participating in the Maalstroom commissioned performance, GREY AURA, hailing from Utrecht, The Netherlands, will also bring their conceptual Black Metal to Roadburn 2019 on Sunday, April 14. GREY AURA are using their playful yet sometimes schizophrenic take on this genre (like some of the others participating in Maalstroom) as a vehicle to expose and explore the darker side of the mind.

ROADBURN’S PRE-SHOW PARTY: IGNITIONWith a new home (the 013’s Green Room) and a new name, Roadburn’s pre-show party, Ignition, is primed and ready to get the festivities off to a killer start. Featuring TEMPLE FANG and HELLRIPPER – a third band will be announced in due course – Ignition is the perfect way to kick off your Roadburn on Wednesday, April 10 – and sticking with tradition, it will be free to attend.

Though there’s no release yet, TEMPLE FANG – featuring of Death Alley alumni, Dennis Duijnhouwer and Jevin de Groot – are currently making quite a name in the Dutch underground by way of hypnotic and overwhelming live shows. Channeling the spirit of Grateful Dead, Hawkwind, Blue Öyster Cult and Captain Beyond, some fuzzed-out rawk comes to the forefront of their sound as well!

While TEMPLE FANG will bring the psych and expand your mind and your senses, HELLRIPPER will be the perfect antidote for all that! If anything, the Scottish kings of old-school dirty black/speed nastiness will contract your mind into a tiny and super dense ball of steel! Formed in 2014 by backwards visionary James McBain under the spiritual guidance of Venom, Sabbat or Kreator, they’ve since expanded into a full live band and are now ready to tear our head off while thrashing like maniacs.

TICKETS & ACCOMMODATIONRoadburn Festival 2019 is SOLD OUT. Accommodation options remain in Tilburg and further afield – please check the website for more details.